What Color Is It Today?
by S. Yang Lau
Summary: Kaiba Seto spends his days building his corporation empire. One evening, he receives a new project collaboration proposal in the mail. Inside the parcel is a useless prototype android named JOEY. Seto decides to give "life" to the lifeless toy, but he soon forgets that the person he begins to affectionately make a part of his secluded world is not really a person at all. SXJ. AU
1. Frozen Moment

**Author's Note: **A new story in a new fandom, this is. Oh, geez, I remember the last failed attempt I tried in breaking into the SXJ fandom; hopefully, this attempt will be successful. This story is going to be about six chapters, and is based on my soft spot for android and human relationships. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy reading!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Yugioh! ™. This whole franchise belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and his associates.

**Warnings: **Well, I don't think that there's anything too extreme that I should warn the reader about, other than that this is an **alternate universe **piece and that this is a somewhat **angsty** **slash** story. But in any case, CONSTANT! VIGILANCE! ( J.K. Rowling's Mad-Eye Moody reference, yeah? Guys? …Anyone? No one?…Ah, never mind.)

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><p>"Kaiba-sama." Just as the grandfather clock chimed eight, an old gentleman dressed in the distinctive uniform of a butler knocked briskly twice on the door. The heavy, wooden double panels rumbled slightly at the contact. Just to the side of the foreboding, closed entrance, the twinkle of streetlights beyond the floor-to-ceiling window shone brightly against the pitch black of a late October evening.<p>

"Come in," a curt voice replied.

There was a slight creak as the knob twisted and the hinges moved, and the butler walked surefootedly into a large yet dimly lit room. Computer screens covered every wall, and what weren't screens on the flat structures were various other machines against the dull chrome background.

"Kaiba-sama, there is a delivery man at the front door with a … very large parcel. He says that it is from Industrial Illusions."

The incessant clacking sound of laptop keys to the side of the butler suddenly stopped. A peaky-looking young man with dark hair and sharp eyes looked up from the screen with a faintly suspicious, pinched look on his face. "You said that it's from Industrial Illusions?" Kaiba Seto asked after a moment, none too joyously.

Expecting people to receive mail this late in the evening could only be the work of _that_ particular company.

"Yes. Your younger brother is already at the door, but apparently, the package is specifically meant for you."

Seto scowled as he pushed his chair back and stood up from his mahogany work desk, slightly unwilling to tear away from the hours of work he still had to complete even if only to receive a parcel. "What the hell is he up to this time?" he muttered to himself. Although Pegasus J. Crawford was the owner of the multi-billions worth American toy company Industrial Illusions, which sometimes collaborated with the virtual technology innovator Kaiba Corp to make various consumer products, Crawford could be described as an eccentric toymaker in the nicest possible way, and a manic businessman in the worst…

'With good evidence being this ridiculous delivery time,' Seto thought to himself with a good deal of silent snark. "Did he say what it was?" he questioned briskly as he strode out of his study and down the hall.

"Er, no, I'm afraid not. It was extraordinarily large, though," the butler explained as he faithfully trotted behind his boss's longer, stiffer strides down to the front door a few floors below. "About the size of yourself, Kaiba-sama."

Seto made a low grunt and his scowl deepened. Recently, the eccentric American had purposely let slip at a recent meeting between the two companies that he was thinking of a completely new product that he was sure would "dazzle the world."

Judging from a stunt like this, it was probably something related to that. In any case, he had responsibility as the owner of Kaiba Corp to examine it.

When the butler bowed and left Kaiba at the bottom of the marble steps, Seto saw his younger brother standing next to a distinctly uncomfortable looking delivery man, the latter of whom was shifting his weight from one uniformed leg to the other. Beside them was exactly what the butler had described: an enormous white package that measured about as tall as Seto himself, and about as wide and thick. Plastered over the visible sides of the shrink-wrapped package was Industrial Illusion's logo, a large silver letter "I" with the number two hanging on the upper right side in a scripted flourish.

The frown that had been on the owner of Kaiba Corp's face worsened threefold. Although a profitable business partner was a profitable business partner, he had always thought that the logo was particularly ridiculous. 'I squared', how childish was that?

"B-big brother," Mokuba squeaked in greeting. Seto grunted in response and turned to his visibly uncomfortable guest. In the delivery man's hands was a much smaller box that the butler had neglected to mention. Seto didn't blame him too much; the literally life-size package was certainly more eye-catching.

Seto raised his chin to the man clutching onto the tiny box. "Pegasus Crawford sent you." It wasn't really meant as a question, but the man answered anyway.

"Er, that's right, K-Kaiba-sama. He asked to have this hand delivered to you personally. Wanted Kaiba-sama to have it and tell him when he's received it as soon as possible, he told me." The man jerked his head fearfully towards the box standing next to him. "Oh, and this, too." He raised the cardboard box clutched in his hands a few centimeters or so with trembling arms.

Seto made an inaudible sound in the back of his throat. It was suspicious, there was no doubt about that. When had Pegasus ever done anything that didn't have his own fair share of amusement? However, the brunet was quite certain that there was nothing too dangerous in either of the packages; his sensor system at the front gates would have taken care of anything of that sort.

"Um, he wanted you to open this one first." The delivery man offered the package in his hands to Seto, who slowly extended his hand and finally rid the poor man of his misery. The former let out a small squeak of relief. "Well, I just need to get a signature, and then I'll be on my way."

Seto signed the delivery man's tablet, and within a flash the other had run off. By the time Seto was able to tear his gaze from the phantom tollbooth sized box, the delivery man could be faintly seen jumping over the hurdles of the shadowed bushes and sprinting down the dimly lighted brick walk towards the front gates. Seto's lips pulled back in distaste as he nodded for the butler to close the doors behind them.

Mokuba, meanwhile, was concentrating on the hindrance that was now looking awfully out of place in Kaiba Mansion's living room quarters, peering uncertainly at the mysterious package.

Seto examined the surprisingly light box in his hands, also splattered with the shiny logo. It made no noise, oddly enough. What on earth could be inside either of them? He gave another suspicious glare to the larger package, which dwarfed his younger brother in terms of size.

Snapping at a nearby maid to fetch him a pair of scissors, Seto walked slowly around the box standing solidly on the marble floor.

"Big brother… He said that you're supposed to open this one first, right?" Mokuba asked timidly, pointing to the box in Seto's hands.

Seto made a short irritable jerk of his head as he snapped back that he knew that perfectly well, causing Mokuba to cower away slightly.

The maid returned with the shears, which Seto used to swiftly puncture the masking tape and open the flaps of the tinier cardboard box. He pulled out a board of formed Styrofoam that matched the dimensions of the box completely. In the center of the white packaging was a single plastic transparent case with a laser disc inside. On the disc were two words: "Play me."

Seto repressed an eye roll. Always with the stupid theatrics with this man.

"Can we watch it now?" Mokuba questioned eagerly, his obvious awe and, or, fear for his brother momentarily forgotten in his interest for the clichéd idea of a mysterious albeit still intriguing disc.

Seto answered with another noncommittal jerk of his head and stiffly made his way to the entertainment quarters in an adjacent room. A large television screen immediately responded to his presence, flashing the Kaiba Corp logo as it awaited his command. Popping the case out of the protective packing material as he heard Mokuba cautiously walk in, Seto pushed the disc into the DVD player to the side of the television. As he sat stiffly down onto the couch in front of the system, even Mokuba edged closer to the television and stared eagerly at the screen.

A man with long white hair and in a brilliant red suit appeared on the display with a large, dazzling smile. He appeared to be sitting on a sofa-chair with his legs crossed, a champagne glass balanced jauntily at his fingertips. _"Kaiba-boy! I hope that you and little Mokuba haven't opened my other gift for you two just yet!"_ He waggled a long thin finger mockingly at them. _"That would ruin the surprise! Now, I bet you two are just _dying_ to know what's inside that package, aren't you? Hmm?_

"_Well, let me just say that this is a new line that I have started for Industrial Illusions! I know that you always have an _eye_ out for business, Kaiba-boy," _Pegasus continued merrily as he tapped at his cheekbone for emphasis, _"and so I wanted to show my favorite young business man my newest tricks! It'll be sure to knock your socks off! I just simply got _too excited _and I couldn't _wait_ to show you it._

"_You two haven't opened it yet, have you? Let me just finish my message first. I have meant it to be tons of smiling faces' new companion if you are to say 'okay' and decide to team up with me on this! I, myself, am hoping that Kaiba Corp will be interested in working with I Squared again and bringing my newest creation to _life_! Oh, I have said too much!" _The American giggled at a joke only he seemed to understand and took a sip of his drink before continuing.

"_Everything you need to know will come in the other box, but I'll tell you something you should know first: Rub behind the left ear! That'll start the whole adventure! Oh, do tell me when you have opened it, and send me a reply ASAP! I'm _waiting_!"_ he finished in a sing-song voice.

The screen turned blank.

Mokuba was thrilled as he turned to his brother. " May I open it?" A sliver of childish eagerness dared to make its way on the young teenager's face, and Seto could briefly remember his only brother having a similar expression years and years ago.

"Fine," Seto finally muttered irritably before Mokuba sprinted over to where the larger of the packages remained waiting.

"Do you think it's a robot animal, big brother? Since he said it has ears? That'll be really cool, wouldn't it?" Mokuba asked happily, still sounding very much like the child he was years ago.

"Sure." Seto's voice was rough, a tone that reflected his feelings well. Robot pets were nothing new. Technology had been advancing quickly the last few decades; a newer version of the latest machine dog was barely worth a second glance. Surely Pegasus realized Kaiba Corp had more pressing concerns than to spend its valuable resources on a robotic pet—

Yet he had to be hesitant, still. That would have to be an incredibly large dog or cat to actually take up so much space. And if it really was an animal, wouldn't the package be sitting flat instead of on one of its ends like that?

"Oh my _god—_" Mokuba squeaked.

Seto quickly broke away from his thoughts to look up. Mokuba had torn into the shrink-wrapped package with his trusty pair of scissors and was now staring at the supposed gift inside. Only it wasn't a cat. Or a dog.

It was a human.

Seto inhaled sharply and walked over to face the figure head-on. Was this some kind of sick joke? Oh, he'd always known that Pegasus would crack beyond repair sooner or later— kidnapping people for fun and using them for pranks—

But perhaps he was speaking too soon.

On closer inspection, Seto realized that it was not a person, but indeed a robot encased in the same white packing material that completely fitted over the android's form. A robot with blond hair—damn Pegasus and his rubbing the "American" way in Seto's face— a thin face and wiry body, fully clothed. It had the appearance of a young male in his late teens, if not Seto's own age at the cusp of adulthood: nineteen.

In those perspectives, it seemed life-like. Yet its—_his_, really—eyes were open in such a way that seemed completely inhuman. The irises were completely black and dull.

"…This is really creepy." Mokuba sounded very disappointed that they had received not a pet, but a mannequin. Seto made a grunt in the back of his throat again. While his younger brother could not appreciate the inner workings it took to animate large machines, _he_ could.

Bending down to pick up the small booklet of instructions at the android's feet, he noticed that Pegasus had not bothered to give his creation shoes. Snorting as he righted himself again, he glanced at the cover of the tiny instruction manual. On the cover was a personal message to the Kaiba brothers that went as follows:

_Industrial Illusions Presents: _(There was a line of blank space for dramatic effect here.)

_JOEY, the android! _(And of course it would have such an American name.)_ Blond hair, brown eyes. _(Seto frowned. This had to be a misprint, surely. The eyes were black.) _One point eight meters. _(There was another line of blank space here.)

_I told you, Kaiba-boy, that this will knock your socks off! Like I said on screen, he is just a prototype. That means that he's not perfect— _(Seto bared his teeth at the innocent booklet. He knew what prototype meant. This android was a sample, the original model— in other words, according to Kaiba Corp standards, the machine was nothing more than a primitive mess of man-made parts.)_ —but I'm sure that he'll grow to be the perfect friend if Kaiba Corp would give me a helping hand. Inside his head is the basic chip that I have gotten my little elves to work on for all of his functions. There's not much there so far, I'm afraid. That's why I need YOU _(capitalized here) _to really think about it!_

_If you do agree with me to create a line of toys like these, spend some time looking over JOEY and use that clever brain of yours to come up with his stuffing! Of course, as a prototype, he is simply meant to be a model for you to use your noggin for. But the real deal is better than just thinking about it all in your head, am I right? How completely BORING _(more capitalization) _would that be? Everything you need to know is written inside this handy-dandy book. Remember, tell me when you've received it!_

Seto was not pleased. He had been sent a prototype life-sized doll. Did Pegasus really think that he would be impressed with that? He flipped the booklet open and glanced petulantly at the long list of minimum requirements to upkeep the android.

"Big brother?" Mokuba said weakly. Seto glanced at his younger brother again, who was edging away from the 'creepy', immobile android with a look of uneasiness on his face.

"I want to see exactly what Pegasus Crawford means by this," Seto snapped, stepping boldly closer to the machine. What did Pegasus say? To rub behind the ear? Briskly pulling out the Styrofoam cushioning around the head and then using Mokuba's scissors to open the plastic wrap covering the length of the body starting from the forehead, Seto leaned in close to the machine to look behind the left ear.

Brushing back the unexpectedly feathery-light blond hair to touch the skin, Seto was rather repulsed by the realistic texture of the silicone rubber. There was a dial right where the curve of the ear met with the rest of the head. That felt like skin as well. Seto had to briefly recoil his fingers in disgust, but finally stroked down the slightly protruding wheel with a stiff finger.

Suddenly, a distinct whirring sound could be heard coming from the android JOEY. Seto quickly stepped back, and Mokuba made a very un-fourteen year old "eep" sound as he childishly hid behind his brother, another thing he hasn't done in the past several years.

The android JOEY closed his eyes briefly and opened them again. Pegasus was right. Now that the machine was turned on, the eyes were indeed an oddly warm color of light brown. Seto took an unexpected inhale at the sight, his heart beat skipping slightly. JOEY blinked once, then again, and then a third time. Maybe the warmth Seto had seen in the eyes was just a trick of the light in that frozen moment; on second glance, the eyes, although brown, became and remained glassy.

Mokuba appeared to be too stunned to make any sound from behind Seto, but the older brother couldn't quite remain as silent. "You're JOEY," he said, blurting out the first thing to come to his mind.

JOEY smiled blandly, which seemed to be a slight effort on his part to raise the corners of his lips. "Yes. I am JOEY." He spoke perfect Japanese in a rather low baritone. "What… are your names?" JOEY asked, first talking to Seto, and then twisting his head to the side without moving away from the packaging material surrounding his feet to look at Mokuba.

"Kaiba Seto."

"Kaiba Seto," JOEY repeated, staring at Seto, as if to recognize his face and match it up to the name. The dull smile was still plastered on his face as he did this. "What do you wish for me to address you as, Kaiba Seto?" The words, while perfect, awkward and stilted—to the point of sounding completely unrealistic for an average human.

"With respect," Seto snapped. "You will call me Kaiba-sama." Seto had no problems with telling people to address him this way, no matter how pompous and impolite it might be to demand to be called such a title. After all, everyone used that honorific for him.

"Kaiba-sama," JOEY said. There was a pause, and then he turned to Mokuba again after a moment. "What is your name?"

Mokuba finally seemed convinced that JOEY, while disturbing, posed no threat, because the young teen said boldly, "Kaiba Mokuba."

"What do you wish for me to address you as, Kaiba Mokuba?"

"Don't think of anything stupid, please, Mokuba," Seto muttered crossly through clenched teeth. He doubted Mokuba would while Seto was standing here, but he would rather not take any chances.

The small boy seemed to deflate at the unnecessarily rough tone. "Mokuba…kun. I'll be Mokuba-kun," the boy finally whispered.

"Mokuba-kun." There was that familiar whirring sound again. "Kaiba-sama," JOEY said as he tilted his head in Seto's direction. He then looked around mildly with absolutely no expression on his face. "Is this home?"

"Yes. This is home," Seto answered. "Kaiba Mansion." He watched with slight interest as JOEY quietly whirred and stored the information away. After a few seconds, JOEY became still again. "Can you walk?" he questioned sardonically when it looked as if the android had no interest in stepping out of the rubble.

"Yes, Kaiba-sama. I can walk." JOEY said stiltedly. He stiffly lifted his leg up to move forwards, and then seemed to remember that he should check for obstacles first, because he then oddly jerked his leg out of the hindering plastic and made a step onto flat ground. He repeated this motion with his other unclad foot, and presently stood to the side of the box that had spewed him out just moments before.

Seto made a slight face at the awkward movements and flipped to the first page of the manual. JOEY the android could do exactly five things beyond facial and spacial recognition: talk, walk, and mimic eating, drinking, and sleeping. "A prototype indeed," he muttered, unimpressed.

"I am a prototype," JOEY carefully enunciated helpfully in agreement.

While JOEY took another look around his surroundings, walking around in his bare feet, the younger Kaiba brother appeared to be taking in very deep inhales. Seto was about to irritably inquire about it, but then Mokuba suddenly started speaking all in one breath: "Big brother, are you really going to think of using Kaiba Corp to fund this? Robot people, I mean. Androids. I mean, if you were to agree and make a line of really human-looking robots, don't you think that's a little too… creepy?" he finished in a hush.

Aha. So he was trying to muster up courage to speak.

The two watched JOEY from the corners of their eyes as the android went to examine a frankly very boring wall. Seto did so with barely any interest, Mokuba did so with fear. "I mean, if it was anything else, I would think that'll be pretty awesome," Mokuba continued quietly, his courage giving him one more spurt of energy. "But a actual robot human? There's no reason to make one."

Mokuba was right, Seto had to admit. Robots with specific attributes of humans existed in society, of course: robots with large, pan-like arms that could easily scoop up patients from one room to another in a busy hospital, robots that could discern threats in war zones and diffuse problems while humans controlled and navigated them from a safe distance—

But a completely independent human-looking _toy _meant for everyday life's plaything…! It would be exhausting to make, for sure, if Seto was willing to spare time to think about it, not to mention dreadfully expensive. Only the wealthy and possibly perverse would want one. The benefits couldn't possibly outweigh the costs. Pegasus had done this to satisfy his toy-maker side with no thoughts to his business one.

But then, whenever Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions collaborated, the former usually _was_ the brains side of the operation…

Yet Seto was slightly intrigued by the puzzle in front of him. To make a human robot realistically would require the finest mind. It would certainly be a triumph to experience, even if the obstacles were many... It would undeniably bring Kaiba Corp to the undisputed top.

Seto frowned. "We'll see," he decided finally. He snapped his fingers and waved his hand dismissively towards the mess on the marble floor for the maids to dispose of. As they whisked away the box and the other materials, Mokuba gave his brother another uneasy look.

"…Really, big brother?" The new-found strength had apparently died out, for Mokuba spoke in his usual quiet whisper again.

"I have to consider everything, Mokuba," Seto said briskly. "Even so, I'll hardly have time to consider Crawford's latest project until I finish everything else." His younger brother never did have the same nose for business. He was completely unlike his older brother, whom had graduated high school and was now taking on the responsibilities of Kaiba Corp full time.

Mokuba gave him one last uncomfortable expression. "If you say so." Avoiding JOEY's blank gaze, the younger Kaiba brother then scurried off.

Meanwhile, Seto had a robot that did not do much else besides smile stupidly and call him "Kaiba-sama." And Pegasus was still expecting a reply, on top of the piles of other work Seto had to attend to. What a wonderful night this was turning out to be.

No one was sure what to do with the android; the servants felt rather uncomfortable being so close to an undoubtedly expensive project, which was really saying something, as they cleaned priceless heirlooms on a daily basis. Mokuba had made it clear that he was going to go nowhere near JOEY, that was for sure. And Seto, himself, had plenty of other work waiting for him.

So in their own ways, everyone ignored the thing. No one bothered to reach behind his ear to temporarily take the poor, innocent thing out of its misery, either, and so after ordering JOEY to wait in one of the numberless empty rooms, it was best to conclude that the android was aimlessly walking around that same patch of floor and staring at blank walls. Seto returned to his sanctuary, his study, and left JOEY to his own, although almost nonexistent, devices. After giving a curt message to Pegasus that he had indeed received the package, and that the American will have to wait at least a few more days if not a week for Kaiba Corp's final decision, the fact that he had ever received a useless android named JOEY in the first place quickly became buried under the piles of more pressing concerns he had to take care of that night.

It was only when Seto got ready for work at the Kaiba Corp building the next morning and went down the stairs did he remember Pegasus' ludicrous present; he could hear the faint sounds of unsure footsteps being made in the room he had left JOEY in. Seto would have thought that it was almost pathetic if he cared that much.

Ignoring the sounds, Seto ate his already prepared meal and went off to work.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

It's odd, writing Jounouchi as this brainless, dull character. The only exciting thing about him so far is the capitalized "JOEY" as his factory name. He does get renamed, though! And he does become…less brainless and dull. Oh, I have said too much. Hahaha.

The title of this story is from an old song, '今日は何色', by a group called the Pip Pops. The title of the chapter, 'Frozen Moment', is the name of a beautiful theatrical piece from the cinematic orchestra group Two Steps From Hell; the title here alludes to the single moment in which black eyes turned to brown.

Please leave a thought on your way out! It would be a very kind thing to do.


	2. Only Once

It was several days later when Seto was finally able to sit down for a few moments of peace in his study. In that time, he had barely seen Mokuba, whom rarely seemed particularly thrilled to spend time alone with his silent, busy brother, and JOEY, who was there, but might as well have not been there at all. Seto suspected nastily that if he bothered to check, he would still see JOEY walking quietly around in the room gazing blankly at walls and trying hard not to bump into things.

It was already very late. Seto leaned back into his ergonomic work chair and forced his tense back muscles to loosen a bit as he let out a quiet exhale. As he had promised to himself, he pulled out the file in one of the wooden drawers that contained JOEY's instruction booklet. He scowled as he did so. It was rather ridiculous to print out one on paper when a manual could much more efficiently be sent via computer. It was probably Pegasus' attempt to relive the nostalgic days of more primitive electronics. Yet Seto was still slightly grateful for the fact that he could spare his tired eyes from the computer screen glare, even if just for a moment.

The sallow brunet flipped the booklet open and had to suppress a leer. Indeed, JOEY the android was not particularly interesting other than the fact that he appeared to look life-like and could respond to basic outside stimuli. According to the CEO of Kaiba Corp, that really didn't make him much better than a slightly more extravagant child's doll.

Seto wrinkled his nose at the sparse instructions. There wasn't much to read besides numerous warnings that as a prototype, JOEY was not fit for too many strenuous activities. Such activities were then comprised in a dense list in a font so small that Seto didn't bother to read them at all.

JOEY the prototype android needed to be recharged, apparently. When the battery, which would be found in a panel at the small of his back, goes dead in a few more days or so if continually kept on, Seto would have to plug him in using the classic wall outlet. Seto snorted at Pegasus' poor attempt for electronic humor, but dismissed the pathetic method of recharge and battery life; JOEY was the prototype stage of this whole idea, and convenient sustainability at this point was on a whole other realm of discussion entirely.

Sighing, Seto pulled the desk phone away from its cradle and punched in a few numbers. "I want the android brought up to the study," he said curtly and hung up.

He turned back to the instructions again. The chip responsible for controlling all of the android's functions was embedded in the back of the machine, overlapped and thereby hidden by the robot's awfully shaggy blond hair. Although the material of the locks was top quality, the cut itself left much to be desired. Seto would have thought that Pegasus would spend just a bit more time on the hair to make it more tasteful… yet in a way, Seto supposed that the messy, imperfect tresses did fit the robot. The thing was just a prototype, after all.

About ten minutes later, a frazzled middle-aged maid appeared with JOEY next to her.

"Kaiba-sama," JOEY greeted pleasantly in that disturbingly flat voice. The android seemed completely unfazed that he had in fact spent the last several days ignored by everyone, with only four walls as company.

"I-I apologize for taking such a long time," the maid stuttered. "It took a bit of time to bring it—err—_him_ up."

Seto did not acknowledge the explanation with a reply, but simply waved the woman away. He leaned back in his chair again, watching steadily as the man and android made undistracted eye contact. He sighed again and closed his eyes finally, uninterested in a staring contest. If he was going to forever chained to the eternal desire in making Kaiba Corp the most renowned virtual technology enterprise in the world, he'll do it as he saw fit. Wasn't he allowed that one luxury?

Not in a particular mood to continue reading the instructions, Seto rubbed the bridge of his nose, clenching his eyes shut. The screen glare from the countless monitors mounted on every walled surface really did awful things to his vision sometimes.

A voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Are you unwell?" Seto opened his eyes to see a pair of blank brown eyes still staring in his own.

Seto sneered in response, and tossed the instruction manual onto his desk with a flick of his wrist. "I'd like to see you staring at computer screens for seven hours straight and see how you'll fare."

He wondered if it was fatigue that was causing him to speak to this near lifeless doll.

There was that annoying whirring sound again as JOEY processed Seto's words. There was no response other than this, which lasted for a good minute or so until the android became silent once more.

"I do _not_ have time for this," Seto muttered to himself. It seemed like a hopeless case, really. At this rate, it would take him years that he could not currently afford to create an android with efficient, marketable technology.

"You do not have time for me?" A genuine human would have been hurt, or at least insulted by the jibe. JOEY took it all in stride.

"It doesn't matter," Seto snapped, closing his eyes again. "You're still work. You and countless hundreds of other things."

"Are the… 'countless hundreds of other things' also androids like myself?"

"No," Seto said snidely. "Luckily, you're the only robot human I have at the moment." He pursed his lips together. 'And really not for much longer,' he thought to himself.

"Luckily? I am… lucky?" JOEY repeated the last word slowly.

"Right," Seto muttered. "Very lucky. A goddamn miracle, you are."

"I am lucky because I can do what your other work cannot," JOEY said in what would have been proudly had he been capable of using that tone. Instead, it came out as flat as all of his other sentences.

Seto would have scoffed if he had the energy to do so. "Is that right?"

"Yes. I can listen to you."

Seto begged to differ. Every machine in this room obeyed his command; all it took was a simple finger on the keyboard or touch screen. "No. That doesn't count."

"I can talk to you."

That wasn't true as well. Seto had several speech systems at the ready, all of them more powerful than that of JOEY's, all of them able to respond to his voice. "No, that doesn't count either." Truthfully, JOEY's ridiculously limited speech pattern was beginning to irritate him.

"I can make you laugh."

Seto raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?" He doubted it immensely. "How?"

That annoying hum filled the room. "I can speak nonsense sentences. They can make you laugh."

That was certainly the work of an oddball like Pegasus— forget more realistic movements and a better speech program when he could have the characteristic of being able to spew out rubbish words not as a fault but as an ability. "I'd like to see you try," Seto finally scoffed.

There was that whirring sound again. And then, "What color is it today?"

Seto blinked in bewilderment. Then he realized that the thing was being serious. After a few seconds of taken back pause, he made a choked, wheezing sound. "Ha! Only the insane can possibly answer a question like that."

But JOEY had done it. Surprisingly, Seto was in a slightly better mood now.

Another brief spout of mechanical humming ensued. "I do not understand what 'insane' means."

Moment of mirth gone, Seto groaned out loud. He nearly found that laugh-worthy all by itself for Pegasus to neglect adding the best adjective to describe himself into his own creation's vocabulary. He sighed again. "I'm tired," he said out loud, closing his eyes again.

"You are 'tired'? You should sleep."

"And what are _you_ going to do?" Seto snapped.

"I will finish carrying out your order."

Seto couldn't muster up the energy to ask exactly what the hell JOEY was talking about, because sleep sounded like a wonderful option at the moment. He pressed a button on his desk to dim the lights closest to him and fell into a deep slumber nearly right away.

He woke up some time later in his study to the sound of his alarm clock. Seto kept one in the study as well as his bedroom, just in case he ended up sleeping in here instead of dragging his feet over to his bedroom on the other side of the mansion.

Seto stirred, but didn't bother opening his eyes just yet. Other than the monotonous buzzing that came from the alarm clock on his desk, there was a nice silence that he wanted to bask in a little while longer.

The weight of Kaiba Corp's responsibilities slowly regained their positions on his shoulders, however, and the young man slowly opened his eyes.

Seto suddenly inhaled a choke. Clasping a hand against one of the arms of the chair, he threw his other palm over his rapidly beating chest. There was a person with black, pit less eyes standing there in front of him in the dark—

No. That person wasn't moving. Seto narrowed his eyes and tapped hurriedly and unsteadily on the appropriate icon on one of his computer screens to brighten the lights in the room . He exhaled audibly when he realized that what he had mistaken for a person was actually just JOEY.

Just the android.

Seto scowled. No wonder he felt that it was silent; there was no mechanical humming noise coming from JOEY. In fact, the thing was completely still, as if frozen. JOEY didn't blink or give any other signs of mimicked life. Getting up and wincing at the soreness in his legs, Seto hobbled over to the android in front of his desk and examined him. He made sure to avoid looking at the eyes, which had returned to their original dead, black state.

The android was as silent as death itself. The battery shouldn't have drained just yet; it was much too soon for that. Seto checked the switch behind JOEY's ear in the unlikely case that he had been switched off. The dial was still pointed as 'on.' Seto leered.

"Well, well, well," he muttered as he absentmindedly rotated the dial onto 'off.' "Crawford's little toy broke already. Humph. How _pitiful_."

Seto disliked inefficiency. He loathed unpredictability. He abhorred regret. JOEY had somehow managed to encompass all three by simply existing. JOEY was nothing more than another unsustainable product that Crawford made on whim. There should have been no reason for JOEY to break down so soon, yet here it was. The perpetually busy CEO of Kaiba Corp had wasted precious time playing around with a defective machine when he could have allocated his resources elsewhere. He should have known right away that this particular product of Industrial Illusions was nothing more than scrap metal and silicone.

After realizing, albeit begrudgingly, that he wouldn't be able to satisfactorily dispose of the clutter until he replied to Pegasus' message first, he cagily called up a servant to haul the android to the side of the study before Seto could get the ridiculous pile of wires and silicone out of here for good.

Later that day in Kaiba Corp, Seto spent a few minutes talking to Pegasus via video chat, feeling particularly vicious as he told him that no, Kaiba Corp will not be interested in spending time working on finding a profitable way of churning out a line of silly androids. He snapped that working on such a project would be nothing but unprofitable for both of them, let alone either. He also made sure to phrase his words in such a way that he was sure that the other businessman would understand that the whole thing was the latter's fault.

Pegasus had, as expected, looked very disappointed. "Poor JOEY just shut down inexplicably? Oh, Kaiba boy, of course he conked out! JOEY needs some shut-eye, too, you know. Didn't you tell him to go to sleep last night? You have to say that; you have to tell him to sleep or else he'll stay up all night long and drain himself dry! I bet you didn't read that in my nifty little manual; you always _were_ one to not read all of the fine print."

Seto was not amused. He had, in fact, not read that part. Nor did he have the remotest desire to do so. "I am not a little girl with her doll toy, Crawford. I shouldn't have to coo a damn robot to rest every night."

"Oh, Kaiba-boy, you say such hurtful things… Well, there must be something that went topsy-turvy inside his head! All of his functions are looped together at this stage; if one goes down, then the whole ship will sink—" Pegasus sighed dramatically. "But, ah, well… since you did say that you have no wishes to work on this new project at all, I guess thinking too much about it is all for naught… "

Surprisingly, when Seto asked haughtily whether he was expecting his useless toy back, Pegasus only sighed loudly again and replied that Seto could keep JOEY as a gift. Seto was most displeased by the tone, which insinuated that Pegasus was in fact doing him a favor by letting the brunet keep the thing, and irritably closed the connection not long after.

The next few days were a nightmare; everywhere Seto turned, there were forms to sign here and projects to initiate there, and people to yell at all the way over there. In that time, the man almost forgot again that he had a simpering brother and a dead toy waiting for him to deal with at home. In a way, JOEY was fortunate; Seto was much too preoccupied to see to the former's disposal. Meanwhile, the younger Kaiba brother took great care to keep himself from being underfoot. Seto had always thought that it was rather funny that Mokuba constantly seemed to be free whenever Seto had the most amount of work to deal with.

He had at first been very disappointed with his brother's lack of ambition and drive in the business world; Mokuba had absolutely no interest in handling Kaiba Corp. The young boy seemed utterly content with dealing with silly things like being playing his video games and letting his older brother take care of the enterprise that the latter had built to be the technological empire that it was today. But then, Seto was the genius, not Mokuba.

He did still remember the days when they had a relationship that was of genuine brotherhood. Those memories would fade in and out of consciousness in present day, somewhat obscured by the comparably solid barrier of emotional distance that had somehow been set up between the two over the past several years.

Seto generally never spent too much time thinking about the unmistakable soured bond between that of him and his brother; he was a busy man, after all.

However, there were some nights, rare as they were, when he would wonder. Late at night, after he finished all pressing concerns, after all other lights were turned down, after everyone else had retired to sleep, Seto would wonder:

When was the last time he was able to sit down and not lecture, not snarl at, not coolly speak down on, but converse?

The thin young man had such thoughts now, finally able to take a breather after meticulously going through and finishing yet another sudden onslaught of work until late into the evening.

He was quite lonely.

One of the worst parts of the matter was that sometimes, these thoughts would keep him from sleeping. As much as he chose not to let it bother him during working hours, at times when there was nothing else but Seto and the walls left, he could not rest comfortably. In such cases, Seto would usually find something to keep his mind off of such things, such as reading a book or stare out his window to overlook the vast lands that all belonged to the Kaiba name: calming, passive activities.

Unfortunately, tonight was not one of those evenings in which simply sitting about would help ease on slumber. Seto still had the need to work and keep himself busy until he exhausted himself to rest. Perhaps a walk would help.

The brunet got out of his chair and began to pace the length of his study. Keeping his hands clasped loosely against the small of his back, the sallow young man put one foot in front of the other, repeating the steps over and over.

Seto tried to keep his mind free during this time; he thought of nothing but those mechanical steps: left foot forward, right foot forward, left foot forward…

Something in the corner of his vision caught his eye. Seto stopped pacing and turned to fully face the still form of JOEY. The machine had been awkwardly pushed to the side of the study so that one of his sides instead of his back faced the wall. If the machine had been placed facing away from the wall, that would have offered the slightest illusion of human behavior; for the android to be set facing the adjacent wall in the way he was now only furthered the obvious that he was a poor imitation of life.

"…That's right. I've forgotten about you," Seto said out loud, trailing his eyes up and down the android. He felt somewhat assured sometimes when he heard his own voice. It made the man remember that just because there was no one to speak to when he was alone, it didn't mean that he could not speak in the first place.

JOEY's black eyes continued to stare at the conjoining wall.

Perhaps…

Yes, finding what made this toy break, that might occupy Seto long enough to exhaust the last bits of excessive energy he still had. Tapping briskly on a tiny pad on the wall beside him, the lights overhead brightened to shine on JOEY's form. The shadows formed immediately cast a silhouette on the wall to the side of JOEY, and for a moment, the android gave a brief, convincing image of an actual human's shadow behind his own frame.

Sliding a wheeled tray laden with tiny tools close to him, Seto picked up the instruction booklet from its place on his desk. He pulled up a tall stool as well, and briskly sat down behind the machine. Flipping open the instruction booklet with a flick of his fingers, he coolly scanned the pages detailing JOEY's mechanics. He supposed dismantling the head to find the problem, wherever it may be, was as good a place to start as any. According to the ridiculous little diagram that Pegasus had generously thought to include for him, Seto would find the cover, in which the back of the head could be removed, right along the android's hairline. Turning back to the machine at hand, he let out a barely audible, patient exhale and set to work.

Using a pale, thin hand, he pushed the strangely soft strands of hair behind the ear along the right side of JOEY's face. Seto raised an eyebrow at the surprising effectiveness of placing the seam there; the android's hair nearly perfectly camouflaged the lining. Finding the tiny ridge along the shell of his ear—the perfect opposite of the 'on-off switch' of JOEY's left side— Seto pushed his finger against it and heard a slight 'click' as the protrusion pressed in.

Letting out a controlled exhale, he carefully cupped the curved back of the head and pushed up; there was another click as the entire piece propelled itself upwards; it moved itself on hinges that met right behind the android's temples and ended its journey about seventy degrees in, stationed nearly right over JOEY's crown.

Seto resisted the urge to roll back his lips and bare his teeth in disgust at the slew of wires he had just uncovered— there was a circuit board of some sort nestled awkwardly in the center of it all, held up by a careful balance of plastic-coated, thin cables. A "basic chip" indeed; the design was a relatively simple one, and Seto doubted that the technology Pegasus had decided to wire in the board was anything more impressive…

And then there it was— the problem:

The wires connecting JOEY's camera pieces to the circuit board had burned out; they were no longer the plastic scarlet shade like the rest of their lengths, but a molten brown color. The areas that burned through completely exposed the silver wiring inside.

The solution was so simple that the brunet was rather disappointed; Seto would just need to replace the faulty wires and then charge the android for a full recovery. The question was whether it was worth the effort…

It would take him no more than a few minutes to take care of it all. Seto sat in his seat for a moment. He could hear only silence.

Only silence.

It was in that silence that the young man remembered JOEY stating at that time, shortly before Seto drifted off to sleep, that he planned on carrying out Seto's order. The brunet did not understand what the android had meant at that time, but now it made sense:

_"I'd like to see you staring at computer screens for seven hours straight and see how you'll fare."_

JOEY _had_ obeyed his order: he simply stared at the screens—which were programmed to stay on so long as the sensors detected movement in the room— mounted all over the walls in Seto's study for as long as he could until his eyes gave out. If JOEY had continued to turn his head around and around to stare, that would have theoretically kept them on all night long.

Seto doubted that JOEY had even managed to last all seven hours; he, himself, had slept fewer than that amount that night, not to mention that all the screens were blank when the sallow young man awoke.

JOEY's eyes couldn't handle the glare, either…

Something, perhaps lured on by the late hour, still reverberated in Seto's mind:

"I can make you laugh," JOEY had said.

And JOEY had, in his own strange way.

Seto went to work.

Carefully detaching the circuit board from the wires connecting that to the cameras, and then deciding to remove the thing altogether just so that he could spare himself from looking at the thing hang listlessly in the head cavity, Seto used his forceps to slowly dislodge all of the wires connected to it. The board went into the tray beside him.

Silently getting up from the stool, Seto briskly walked the length of his study to enter a spacious, conjoining closet. He kept all of his supplies for spare computer parts in there in the case that anything ever needed fixing in his study; he was much too paranoid and territorial to let just anyone come into his study and fix his computers, so he made sure he had the supplies, himself. At any rate, Seto was certain his skills even surpassed those of the so-called "best" professionals.

The android's wires were incredibly basic; he was guaranteed to find a suitable replacement. And he _was_ able to; after briefly scanning the long row of drawers neatly labeled by type and material, Seto opened one and uncoiled what he needed away from the rest.

Seto sat back down on the stool, comparing the original wiring to the intended substitute before adjusting the latter down to size. Using a steady hand, he reattached the ends to the camera's side, and then picked up the chip.

He stared at it for a silent moment, examining the dull finish with a slow rotation with the tweezers. While the whole point of tonight's little project was to help bring on slumber, Seto still could not help but think that it would be a waste of his efforts if he did not finish the job with a slightly more satisfactory conclusion.

Of course, it was nothing more than to satisfy his own ego…

The chip was such a pathetic piece of work. While Seto could not fix anything too strenuous—the unnaturalness of the limbs' movements, the slow response speed-the general crudeness of it all, really—due to his time constraints and priorities, he could still improve on one more thing.

Pursing his lips, he got up from his chair again. Going over to one of the larger machines lined along the side of the wall, Seto punched in a few keys with quick, nimble fingers. A tray slid out from beneath the contraption silently. Placing the chip into the dimensions, he tapped at a few more keys to push the tray back in.

The screen before him began to organize all of the folders of data that the chip contained onto a single, short list. Clicking on the folder labeled 'speech', Seto briefly scanned the language system capabilities with indifferent, flat eyes.

"Pathetic," he muttered. With a few taps on the keyboard, the folder's former crude contents were erased, and with a drag of the mouse, JOEY's system now contained an exact copy of his most updated and powerful speech and communications software—the same one he used for his personal computers.

After ejecting the chip from the machine, Seto examined the tiny device. Of course, it did not look any different than before— any changes were all incorporated in the data storage inside. He walked back to JOEY, the chip carefully clamped between the tiny metal, curved arms of the tweezers. Easing the object into the space, Seto deftly reattached all of the wires until they were secure.

Pressing the dial behind the android's ear again, Seto watched as the head plate slowly repositioned itself, and before long, the most blatant proof that what stood before him was not human was gone.

He pursed his lips; charging the thing was the only thing left on the agenda now. From what he could recall with his brief reading of the manual, JOEY's battery was located at the small of his back, and he would need to be connected to a wall outlet, of all things, using an extension cord.

The brunet grit his teeth at the thought, but the truth was that he would not be able to completely know how well his upgrade had worked unless JOEY was actually active. Leaving his seat again, he picked up the cord that the butler had conveniently laid beside the android's feet (in the case that Seto had decided to ship the entire package back to Pegasus). Leaving it on the chrome finish of the table top for now, Seto turned towards JOEY's back again.

With a rough twist of his hand, Seto yanked up the back of the thin T-shirt the android was sporting. Having never actually done anything similar to an actual human before, it was slightly strange pulling up the clothes of a robot. The cloth had obscured a narrow, rectangular crest that was located along the line of what would be JOEY's spinal cord. Pinning the fabric into a bunch and then holding it in place with a nearby clip, Seto examined the welt closer; it was shaped like a natural scar, and would actually take a keen eye to realize otherwise.

He pressed his finger against the ridge and pushed up— a tiny, silver-rimmed rectangle measuring about one by two centimeters appeared. Leaning back, Seto picked up the cord from the desk and began unraveling it with deft arms.

He stuck the proper end into the small of his back, where the tiny light bulb inside the plastic bit adjacent to the silicone skin glowed green. He rolled his eyes as he stood up and undid the fastener, letting the now somewhat wrinkled shirt roll back down and cover the site. The green glow dulled slightly underneath the cloth barrier, but was still every bit noticeable. Seto then attached the other end to a spare wall outlet.

And then, JOEY began making that mechanical humming noise again. Irritating and loud.

But it was familiar.

Seto blinked his eyes, finally starting to feel the first urges of sleep calling to him.

As he turned to leave the study, Seto paused for a moment. Although there was no other damage to be taken care of, there was still the matter of the jumble of wires and other things that Pegasus had most likely hidden in the android's body that might contain some problem or the other…

"Only once," he muttered to himself, shaking his head with pursed, thin lips. This thing has received all of what it deserved and more from Seto Kaiba already. It was simply not worth the effort to bother with more.

As Seto left the room, he gave one last look over to JOEY. The android, of course, did not move, and simply stood there, facing the side of the wall with that ridiculous plastic cord hanging from out of the back of his shirt.

Seto hoped that it was all worth it— that he would have no regrets fixing this android— and he went to bed.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

I originally meant for this chapter to be part of chapter one. The reason in that these chapters are meant to be much longer (about 10,000 words per chapter instead of the current 5,000 per chapter). The problem was that I didn't actually have this portion of the storyline written as of yet when I posted up the first chapter sometime in October of last year. I will maybe consolidate the two one day in the future.

"Only Once", the name of this chapter, is from the name of a Cantonese song, 只得一次.

How's for a bit of a thought on your way out? *holds out can*


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